Driving Vintage Cars: The Great Race
You can travel by plane, bus, boat or train. Or you can take the old sedan.
For a growing number of American vacationers over 50, the "old sedan" means a vintage auto which, in some cases, is older than the drivers.
Thousands of motorists, mainly men, are restoring and driving vintage cars. Returning to yesteryear in a 1911 Marmon Speedster, or even a youthful 1953 Chevy Corvette, fascinates those who savor good old fashioned down-to-earth transportation and the memories of a less complex age.
These autos are not just museum pieces. Avid motorists in just about any historic auto club imaginable from the Model A Ford Club to groups restoring cars from defunct companies like Studebaker or Nash, drive around the country in rallies or just informal groups. Or, they drive to car meets to show off their handiwork and, maybe, have a chocolate malt at a restored 50s diner.
The Great Race
The big driving event each year is the Great Race.
Recently, participants in the 2003 Great Race, a 4,000-mile, two-week journey from Livonia, Michigan to Daytona Beach, pulled into a pit stop at the Automotive Heritage Museum in Kokomo, Indiana. The motorists and their navigators, ranging from a retired school teacher to a NASCAR team owner, were greeted by 1,000 fans as Frank Sinatra melodies blared out of the parking lot loudspeaker.
The Great Racers are not in it for the speed. The winners are drivers and navigators who can best follow instructions. In fact, they are penalized if they get to a location too soon.
The participants included a rare all-female team, Linda Pike of Colliersville, Tennessee, and her navigator, Sheila Watson of Searcy, Arkansas, decked out in embroidered white lace dresses.
"I was the support team for my husband for years and I decided it was time to have my own team," Pike says. "So I got myself a sponsor and we won a rally in San Marcos, Texas recently in a 1937 Ford Cabriolet."
Gab Joiner of Rio Rancho, New Mexico and his wife, Evonne, have been a Great Race team for 16 years.
"I used to be the driver," Evonne says, "but he used to fall asleep as the navigator, so now I'm the navigator."
Not a Sport for Paupers
Restoring and driving antique cars is not a sport for paupers, though.
It can cost thousands just to fix up your car to enter shows even if you never participate in a race. One show participant at the Automotive Heritage Museum, a retired engineer, has poured $26,000 turning his 1947 maroon Packard into mint condition--and he does much of the work himself. He even got his wife into the act doing the upholstery for the seats.
So, if you want to show off your old car, either in the parking lot or on the highway, sign up for a club. But beware. You are dealing with purists. If you are going to restore a car, all of the parts should be originals if at all possible.
"You see that Chrysler over there," a club member in Kokomo said. "He doesn't have legitimate headlights on the car. The original glass had a tiny dot in the middle. There isn't any dot on those lenses."
The Automotive Heritage Museum
The Antique Automobile Club of America
Books
Find these books online at Barnes and Noble.com.
- How to Restore Your Collector Car. Tom Brownell. MBI Publishing Company. December 1999
- Official Book of the Antique Automobile Club of America: A 60-Year History of Dedication to the Automobile. Robert C. Lichty. Krause Publications. April 1999
- Cars of the Fabulous '50s: A Decade of High Style and Good Times. Publications International, Ltd. March 2000
